Each state in the country eyeing on Indian tourist

IT IS the line that launched a thousand ships. And airplanes and trains and just about any other mode of transport that could get tourists to visit. Incredible India has been one of the government’s most successful initiatives drawing 53,66,966 tourists in 2008 and earning the country a very impressive $11,747 million in foreign exchange. National Geographic Traveller included Kerala and the Taj Mahal in its list of 50 Places of a Lifetime. No mean achievement considering the backdrop of terrorist attacks and the fears both real and imaginary about what a visit to India could entail in terms of health and safety.

Except that ‘Incredible India’ is a line that makes little sense to a large, lucrative target audience of tourists. An audience, who have so far been wooed principally by countries like Singapore and South Africa, with even unlikely destinations like Finland throwing their hat in the ring. Of late though, all these global tourism boards have an unusual competitor. Or rather a multi-headed set of competitors; tourism departments who are doing everything they can to position the states they belong to as the ultimate vacation spots.

It all began when Kerala adopted the ‘God’s Own Country’ positioning in 1989. It was one of the first attempts at building a brand out of a state. Ashish Kumar Singh, additional municipal commissioner , BMC who was MD, KTDC in 1997 recalls, “Back in those days, domestic tourism was restricted to Mumbai and Delhi, but Kerala was a big hit with foreign tourists at that time.

So to attract the local tourists, it was important to talk to them. Kerala started talking about its tourism bounty when media was not as expensive as it is now.” The results are there for all to see. In 2008, Kerala’s foreign exchange earnings were Rs 3,066 crore, a 16% increase over the previous year. The total revenue (including direct and indirect) from tourism in 2008 was Rs 13,130 crore, an increase of 14.8% over 2007.

Significantly enough, none of the other states have such clear statistics so far and tracking of the tourism sector has only just become a priority. Gujarat however says that the tourist flow to the state in 2002-03 was 62 lakh which increased to 158 lakh in 2008-09 . Even the tourism ministry in its annual report admits there are no precise estimates of total domestic traffic in the country. It however pegs the figure of domestic tourists during the year 2007 at an estimated 527 million, a growth of 13.9% compared to 2006.

Other states are just starting to wake up to what Kerala realised more than two decades ago. Popular tourist traps like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh which were earlier favoured destinations are now competing with the likes of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh or the North East. Formed in 2000 as the 26th state of India, Chhattisgarh is still relatively unknown to Indians or known mainly for all the wrong reasons. But this hasn’t stopped the Chhattisgarh government from trying to push the “famous Bastar handicrafts, Chitrakot waterfall and the vast reserves of forest and animal wealth.”